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by AngelynMoon



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Gen, How Do I Tag, M/M, Missing Persons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:41:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25098571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelynMoon/pseuds/AngelynMoon
Summary: Xander finds a life beyond Sunnydale and Slayers, eventually though the past always catches up.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Xander Harris/Spike
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





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**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes I wonder about how many 'Missing persons' are actually missing, what if they were escaping and the person they were running from is the one reporting them missing. So this happened.

It's a quiet day when Xander Harris goes missing.

A day like any other when he vanishes, just gone.

Xander is gone when Willow wakes up that morning and begins to get ready for class. 

Xander is gone when Buffy returns from patrolling Sunnydale's cemeteries.

Xander is gone when Giles finishes returning the books they used to their spots.

Xander is gone when Spike shows up to play poker with some of the demons he's still friendly enough with.

They don't notice for a few days, Xander works, and though he usually stops around to tell them that they don't think anything about the fact that he doesn't. They should though, this is Sunnydale after all and Xander is just a Human, their Vulnerable Scooby.

His parents, when they finally get concerned enough to ask, frown at them, shout down to the basement and they hear nothing but silence in return.

They get permission tp go down to look and that's when they know something happened but what is the question.

Xander's Babylon plates are missing and a few other odds and ends but a lot of the Basement looks the same as it always was, minus one Xander shaped person.

They try a tracking spell, first one and then every single one that Giles knows and nothing turns up.

If he's alive there should at least be something, right but there is nothing.

Nothing but a Xander shaped hole in their lives.

But life goes on, another Apocalypse to stop and baddies to fight and suddenly they have to stop devoting so much time to finding their missing member.

Over time they realize how much comic relief he provided, how he eased tensions with his awkward, off brand commentary.

They missed him, looked over at where he might have been standing poking fun at Spike or petting Dawn's hair or when the door opened halfway through a meeting and they forgot that it wouldn't be Xander walking in with pizza or Chinese, wouldn't be Xander because Xander was gone.

And when Sunnydale was lost it felt a lot like losing Xander all over again because now all the places that Xander had once been were gone.

\--

Spike hates pick up duty, hates it with a vengeance, but such was his burden for joining Buffy and all her little Slayerettes.

He pulled out a cigarette as he waited for the family to arrive, it was late, that child that lived her should be in bed already and Spike was a bit peeved that she wasn't.

He supposed that his parental leanings could be blamed on his soul and being the oldest in a group home of baby Slayers, not that he'd admit to any type of parental feelings towards those kids.

"Finally." Spike growled out as he saw to car pull up, sickeningly normal.

The girl bounced out of the car almost before it even stopped, mouth going a mile a minute and Spike heard the father chuckle as he climbed out of the car.

According to Red's hacking fingers, the girl's mother had left shortly after her birth, leaving the father to raise a girl on his own, that must have been fun when she hit thirteen or so.

Spike mentally ran through his intended speech and then his mind blanked entirely as he watched the father get out of the car.

He looked different, not just older, no, he looked brighter, happier.

Xander Harris pulled his daughter under his arm as they walked up to the house and he opened the door, pushing the kid through first and taking a glance around, eye pausing where Spike stood, hidden by shadows, face lit up by the glow of a cigarette. 

Xander turned to the door and his face did a twist before he said something to the girl inside the house.

He closed the door gently and made his way over.

"So, Buffy dead again?" Xander asked as he stopped in front of Spike.

"Nah, they did a spell, woke all potential Slayers, got a school for them, if..." Spike started.

"No." Xander stopped him, "She, she deserves something different than fighting monsters every night."

"S'not every night, got a rotating schedule." Spike told him.

Xander rolled his eyes. "She's fourteen, Spike, she shouldn't be worrying about Vampires and demons and the end of the world, she should be worrying about the boy in class that she's got a crush on, the dress she wants to wear to the dance he asks her to. She should be worried about me catching her sneaking out her window to eavesdrop." Xander raised his voice enough to be carried across the street and Spike looked up to see a window snap closed and he could just make out a pouting face in the darkness it hid.

Spike couldn't help his laughter, "We could probably use your help taming the little treats. The girls looked for you, you know."

Xander's eye looked at him, "I got a spell to stop them from finding me before I left. I just..., I couldn't stay anymore."

"Why? I had to watch them grieve you twice! Once when you fucked off and then when Sunnyhell went under." Spike yelled angrily.

"At least there was a chance I lived then, what would happen when I kicked it for real, huh?" Xander asked, poking Spike's chest, "I was the Zeppo, the one without any extras, no Slayer power, no Magic, just me and me always got hurt, eventually me was going to get dead and I couldn't..., Willow almost destroyed the world when she lost Tara. I didn't want you guys to find out what she'd do if I died. I was her best friend, her brother almost, I know what I'd do if something happened to her or Buffy."

Xander looked away, looked at the house, "Her mom showed up at my door before I left, told me she was pregnant, it was mine she was sure, I didn't care if it was true, but I knew that having a kid in Sunnydale, especially mine, given who I was then, was just asking Vampires to come get a free meal." 

"She's the reason?" Spike asked, feeling a bit more understanding, what wouldn't he have done to protect Dawn?

"Just one of the bigger reasons." Xander admitted, "I saw what being a Slayer while in high school did to Buffy, Spike, I can't let her go through that. When she's older I'll let her decide."

"And what will you do 'til then, she's going to be stronger now." Spike reminded him.

"Hey, I learned a thing or two from watching Giles train Buffy and Willow, I can hold out for a few years." Xander nudged him with his shoulder.

Spike finished his cigarette and put it out.

"I could probably stay a few years, tell the girls that her father wouldn't let her go with a strange man on her own." Spike offered.

"Why, I thought you hated me." Xander turned to stare.

"Yeah, guess I thought so too, till you weren't around to tease anymore. Felt like something was missing without you, Nummy." Spike scuffed his shoe, that had been a bit of a surprise, figuring out that he missed Xander just as much as the girls did, maybe a bit more and not for the Blood Xander had always kept in his fridge for him to steal.

"Called in some contacts of my own trying to find you." Spike admitted.

"Huh." Xander said.

"You don't seem wigged out, I guess you'd say." Spike said.

Xander snorted, "I'm not a kid anymore, Spike, I've done some growing up, found out I liked men a bit more than I liked girls, mostly because I couldn't bring myself to have sex with my daughter's mom again."

"So...?" Spike asked, fingers pulling out a new cigarette, more for something to do with his hands the desire to smoke it.

"If you're staying there's no smoking around my daughter or in the house." Xander told him, "Those things will kill us, you know."

"Then where'm I supposed to smoke?" Spike asked.

"You could quit." Xander said as they walked to his house.

Spike snorted.

Xander smiled, "Yeah, that's what I expected, I've got a workshop in the backyard, it connects to the basement through a tunnel, apparently the builders of the house had a Nuclear Bunker. I repurposed it."

"Cool." Spike told him as Xander opened the door and stepped in.

"Gonna invite me in, Pet?" Spike drawled.

"Thinking about it." Xander teased.

Spike gave a growl that made Xander laugh.

"Come in, Spike." Xander smiled.

Spike entered and heard the door click closed gently and even though he'd never stepped foot in this house before today it almost felt like coming home.

"There's blood in the fridge, if you're hungry, I'm going to check on my daughter." Xander told him.

"Never questioned that, did she?" Spike asked.

"To her it's normal, like most families have milk or jelly." Xander shrugged as he showed Spike to the kitchen.

"Partial to Jam myself, it's the consistency." Spike told him.

"We'll get Jam tomorrow then." Xander promised before he went upstairs as Spike helped himself to the blood in the fridge.

Listening to the murmur of voices above him as he sipped his blood from a mug that said World's best Dad Spike realized that this wasn't almost like coming home,nit was coming home.

\---

A/n: I know that Missing persons are probably actually missing, I just wondered about people who vanished because they chose to and this happened.

I know that Spike 'Dies' to destroy Sunnydale but let's say the Amulet protected him and he managed to crawl out or Willow found a Spell to bring him to them after Sunnydale was gone and he just stayed to help with the Slayer babies.

Yes, Xander's daughter is a Slayer and he probably eventually joins her in Cleveland when she goes and Willow and Buffy yell and scream but they are mostly just glad he's alive.

And then they find out that, sometime between Spike leaving to collect Xander's daughter and them coming to Cleveland, Spike and Xander got married and Spike has a Human identity to people now as William Harris and Xander's daughter calls him Sire instead of Dad or Papa and Angel has a heart attack when he hears it.

She gave Spike his own cup that says World's best Vampire for him to drink his blood out of. (He still uses Xander's.)


End file.
